


Bitter Rivals

by MidnightMuse234



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23204599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightMuse234/pseuds/MidnightMuse234
Summary: Shiro had a rival. Well, he didn't think of Ichigo as his rival, but no matter how 'mature' the two of them became as they grew up, they still couldn't stand each other.Everything changed, however, when Shiro overhears a conversation between Ichigo and his younger sister, Yuzu. Shiro didn't know that Ichigo's mother had passed away...And now he can't look at the other the same way. He goes from being Ichigo's rival to ruining the lives of anyone who crosses the orange-head. It doesn't take long for Ichigo to notice and confront Shiro about it.
Relationships: Hollow Ichigo/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 14
Kudos: 57





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so, originally I was planning to make this a one-shot but it's gotten out of control and... now it's going to be a full fic? Enjoy!

Shiro didn't consider himself to be a bully at Karakura High, but he got a bad reputation because of his pale skin, white hair, and freakish eyes. Most students avoided him, thinking he was part of a gang, and quite honestly he didn't mind being alone most of the time, so he didn't let the stares from other students or whispers bother him.

He had two best friends: Grimmjow and Nel. Before they met each other, they were all troublemakers. Not that they still didn't get into trouble, but now it was less their fault, and more because someone else wanted to pick a fight with them and when they tried to avoid it, the other person struck first.

Shiro got it the worst. He didn't know if it was because of his appearance, that being only slightly more shocking than blue or green hair, or if it was some other reason beyond his control that kept getting him into trouble with other students, teachers, and sometimes even random gangs around Karakura Town.

Or maybe there was one other reason: he had what Nel called a "rival".

Ichigo Kurosaki.

Shiro and Ichigo glared at each other every time they passed each other in the hallway. They each had various scars from when they'd fought each other during their first years of high school. Nothing serious: just scrapes from falling onto the pavement. In fact, most wounds happened completely by accident: like tripping or something similar.

The worst wound Shiro ever received from Ichigo was a black eye. And honestly, he'd given Ichigo a good shiner too, so he'd say they were fairly even.

In the 11th grade, both Shiro and Ichigo had called a silent truce. At least, that's what Shiro had decided to call it since he supposed they'd both decided they were "too mature" to have petty fights that didn't really mean anything in the long run. They still glared at each other. They still refused to talk to each other. They still sat on opposite sides of the classroom whenever they had classes together. But they didn't really fight, other than the occasional bumping each other in the arm as they passed each other in the hallway.

Then something happened at the end of the 12th grade. Something Shiro had never told anybody.

It was exam season, so it was fairly normal for students to roam the halls freely until it was time for their exam. Shiro, Nel, and Grimmjow had been hanging out in a classroom being supervised by one of the science teachers. Since the classroom wasn't going to be used for an exam, students were free to use the room to study or to relax before their exams. People who really wanted to study would go to the library or sit on the roof of the school where it was quiet (guess where Ichigo was, and why Shiro wasn't there). Shiro didn't have an exam that day, but Nel and Grimmjow did, so he was mostly there for emotional support.

Shiro's stomach growled. He excused himself to go to his locker and retrieve his lunch, but as he made his way down the stairs, he overheard someone talking.

"Dad did what? Seriously? I'm gonna kick his ass when I get home."

It was Ichigo. Shiro stopped where he was on the stairs and listened. Ichigo must've been below him near the doors. That was the only place to get cell reception in the concrete prison they called ‘school’ and, judging by the one-sided conversation, Shiro assumed Ichigo was on the phone.

"Aww, relax Yuzu, I'm not actually going to hurt dad. You know we don't mean it when we fight."

Shiro smirked a little to himself. Ichigo's dad ran a clinic, so he'd seen Isshin Kurosaki now and then when he was being treated for a cold or for a wound he'd gotten in a fight. He could easily imagine Ichigo kicking the goat-face's ass.

"I know dad just cares, but he could show it in a different way than breaking down my bedroom door every morning… yeah, yeah, hey! I didn't call to get a lecture. I called to see how your day was going."

Shiro wanted to laugh but remained silent.

"It's a beautiful day, it's too bad I've gotta spend it at school… but mom would've loved spending it with you guys. I'm sure she'll be happy you visited her at the cemetery today."

Shiro's heart sank a little. He thought he might've heard Ichigo sniffle.

"Yeah, I'm okay. You'd better get back to what you were doing before the old man does something reckless, Yuzu… uh, huh… yeah… say hi to mom for me? Okay, thanks… bye Yuzu. I'll see you guys at home after my exam is done."

Shiro found himself frozen. He couldn't move, not even after he heard Ichigo hang up the phone. He thought about leaving and pretending none of this happened, but how could he?

And to make matters worse… he heard Ichigo start crying. He'd never seen the other cry before. Not in all the years that he'd known him.

Before Shiro knew it, he'd spent almost the entire lunch break standing in the stairwell. Grimmjow and Nel would be wondering where he was, and they'd have to head to their exams soon.

He supposed Ichigo had to go to his exam too because he saw a head of orange for just a few seconds before he left through doors into the building and disappeared down the hallway.


	2. Chapter 2

Shiro did his best not to think about that day. He didn't want to see his rival in tears - it wasn't like Ichigo to look so… so  _ broken. _

But no matter how many times Shiro tried to push that image from his brain, he still saw something  _ different  _ in Ichigo's eyes every time they walked past each other in the hallway from that point on.

He couldn't stand it, so he kept his eyes on the floor.

That summer, he did his best to avoid Ichigo at all costs. He went out of his way to not go into Ichigo's part of town. He turned down any invitations to events taking place near the Kurosaki clinic, and he always scanned for orange hair before making his way through a crowd.

He couldn't get Ichigo off his mind. It infuriated him.

It seemed like the summer took forever to pass. But as much as it droned on, it didn't last long enough and the first day of college arrived. Shiro dreaded his return to school. At least his high school teachers had gotten used to him. Now he had a whole new set of professors to treat him like a freak and new classmates to avoid him like the plague.

He honestly wouldn’t bother with college at all if it wasn't for his old man. Zangetsu would tear into him if he didn't go to school and, quite honestly, Shiro had enjoyed how little in trouble with his foster-father he'd found himself in all summer and didn't want to ruin that streak so soon.

So, with a pat on the back, Zangetsu dropped Shiro off at college and Shiro spent the morning wandering the campus, killing time before his first class. He knew Nel and Grimmjow would be on campus somewhere too, but he didn’t remember their schedules.

Nel had decided to become a nurse, specifically someone who works with children, if she could manage it. For that, she needed a whole pile of courses that Shiro wasn't interested in nor did he have the prerequisites for. It was fine, though, Shiro knew for sure he didn’t want to become a doctor of any kind. He wasn’t one for dealing with other’s problems - as bad as that sounded. He knew he just wasn’t the right type of person for that job.

Grimmjow wasn't sure what he was doing after high school, so he picked a random array of courses just to see what he would be accepted into. As for Shiro, he'd always enjoyed photography, but his college was small and didn’t offer a course  _ just  _ for photography, so he had to take a general arts program instead. It suited him just fine: he’d end up with three different photography classes over the course of two years, and a few other random art and writing classes that didn’t sound so bad. He figured he could handle it, and it would keep him busy. He was  _ not  _ someone who could handle sitting still.

His first class was dramatic arts - also known as theatre. The drama students were responsible for putting on a show at the end of the first semester. They also had to do fundraising for props and costumes. But, when they weren't panicking about the final big performance, they could relax and practice different techniques: like miming, giving monologues, and more. Shiro enjoyed drama class in high school since it gave him the chance to get all of his energy out. He figured that this class couldn’t be too different, except that everyone would actually  _ want  _ to be in the class and not just here because they needed an art credit in order to graduate high school.

Shiro thought he might actually be a little excited. He made his way to the building his first class was located in and was surprised to find a small theatre. Okay, _now_ he was definitely excited. Beyond the theatre was a hallway with a few other classrooms. He counted the rooms until he entered the one marked on his schedule.

He froze.

Across the room, sitting in a desk and staring out the window was none other than Ichigo Kurosaki.

Shiro continued his march into the room which caught the other’s attention. Brown eyes turned on Shiro and immediately hardened into a glare. Shiro looked away and sat down at a desk on the opposite side of the room.

_ This is going to be a long fucking semester,  _ Shiro thought to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

The first week went by quietly. Shiro was able to avoid Ichigo just as planned until Friday came along and Shiro went to the final class of the week: photography.

It wasn’t so much that class itself but what happened directly afterwards that had surprised Shiro.

He was putting away his things - laptop into his laptop bag, papers into a binder, etc - when he heard a commotion outside the classroom door. Shiro glanced up from his bag but couldn't see out into the hallway due to the students that were now crowding the door.

“Are they fighting?” He heard someone in the hallway ask.

“Seriously? I thought crap like this didn’t happen in college.”

“It looks like a gang fight. Should we call security?”

This caught Shiro’s attention. He quickly zipped up his bag and pushed his way through the crowd. He knew a little about gangs around Karakura town from the different symbols spray painted in the parks and from actually getting cornered by a handful of gangs himself, but none of them ever hung out near the college. It was too high profile, and there were tons of police in this part of Karakura town, not to mention campus security would haul their asses off if they even stepped foot near the college.

So for a gang fight to happen at the college? That seemed ridiculous.

That’s when something - or rather someone - was slammed into the doors at the end of the hallway. Shiro's eyes widened as the stranger slid down the outside of the door and collapsed to the ground. It seemed to Shiro like he’d been knocked unconscious.

And the person who threw the punch still hovered over the stranger’s body just barely in view through the window on the door. It was Ichigo.

Shiro’s lips slowly curled into a smirk. Of course it was Ichigo. He’d seen the man get into a dozen fights with people around their old high school. Ichigo got into shit because of his hair, just like Nel and Grimmjow did. Shiro snickered. No way was his rival going down without a fight. This gang picked the wrong person to mess with.

Ichigo spun around when another man rushed to attack him from behind. Ichigo used the stranger’s own movements against him, easily tossing him to the ground when he tried to punch Ichigo. Shiro watched as the orange-head picked up his school bag off the ground, casually hung it over his shoulder, and headed for the bus stop across the parking lot.

It was then that Shiro’s grin left his lips. Ichigo was heading for the same bus stop that Shiro needed. With a groan, he forced open the door, stepped over the unconscious men, and quietly followed Ichigo to the bus stop.

Ichigo stood inside the small shelter and Shiro stood outside. He glanced at Ichigo, who seemed too preoccupied with his phone to notice that Shiro was there.

Shiro sighed a little in relief and took out his own phone. He put one earbud in and turned on his music while he waited for the bus.

When his bus arrived, he shuffled inside and took a seat near the window. He wasn’t surprised, now that he really thought about it, when he saw a head of orange get on at another set of doors closer to the front of the bus. This was a fairly popular bus route, after all. Shiro was, however, a little caught off guard when a group of five men shuffled onto the bus through the door Shiro had used. He didn’t notice them at the bus stop, but maybe they happened to arrive  _ just _ in time to get on the bus?

Shiro shrugged and leaned against the window. He listened to his music, letting it relax him after a long day.

He closed his eyes for a few stops. His bus ride was going to take at least 30 minutes since he got off at the very last stop on the far side of Karakura. He wondered where Ichigo was going to get off, and why he hadn’t seen him on his bus ride home before? He didn’t think that Ichigo lived close enough to him to use the same bus, but maybe Ichigo was going to transfer buses at a station somewhere.

He opened his eyes and adjusted his position in his seat. Why the hell was he thinking about Ichigo now? He didn’t care what the other was doing. He had more important things to think about like how he was going to get his assignments done between doing work for his old man and working at his part-time job. Well, he supposed that technically those were one in the same, since it was his old man who got him the part time job, and technically he still had one more interview to go through, but he was fairly certain he'd be hired on the spot since the manager owed his old man a favour or something.

It was then Shiro noticed the five men from before. They were talking in hushed voices, leaning close to each other, and pointing at Ichigo. Shiro narrowed his eyes.

The next stop was at a popular station and Ichigo stood up from his seat and moved to the doors. So did the five men.

That made Shiro’s stomach flip. He had a bad feeling about this.

Sure enough, when Ichigo stepped off, so did the five men. It was a popular stop so lots of people were stepping off - which gave Shiro just enough time to decide he was going to get off the bus too.

Honestly, he didn’t know why he was so paranoid. It wasn’t like he was friends with Ichigo or anything, and it wasn’t like Ichigo couldn’t take care of himself.

But still, it’s not like he really wanted to fight with Ichigo anymore either, nor did he wish anything bad to happen to him. Ichigo wasn’t weak, Shiro knew that, but he still couldn’t shake the sound of the other crying from his memories. It haunted him. He knew he never wanted to see the other in such a state again. Ichigo was a proud man who always stood his ground and who could, quite frankly, kick ass. It dishonoured Ichigo's reputation to see him so broken.

Yeah, that was it, Shiro reasoned with himself. He didn't care about Ichigo but he couldn't let his  _ equal  _ be defeated in a five on one fight. It would make Shiro look bad, or something...

Shiro followed the men who followed Ichigo into the bus station. It was a bigger station, so it had two floors and even a convenience store where you could buy a snack to eat on the ride home. Shiro followed the group up a set of stairs, and towards a quieter part of the station. It made more sense to Shiro that Ichigo would be heading this way. It was a long bridge, but it would lead him to a small bus stop that only a handful of busses stopped at. These busses navigated the dozens of small streets that made up Ichigo's part of Karakura town. He was on the opposite side of the river than where Shiro lived.

"Oi, you! You're gonna pay for beating up our pals, kid!"

Shiro heard the words echo across the closed-in bridge. Now Shiro was glad that he followed them. These were all men who were definitely part of a gang. Shiro still didn't know why they had wandered onto the college campus, but he supposed they decided to attack Ichigo since his bright hair made it look like he was part of a rival gang.

Shiro rolled his eyes. Territory wars were fucking stupid. Why risk your life over something so pointless? He couldn't begin to understand, but then again, that was likely because his old man pulled him off the streets before he could get pulled into gang life.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ichigo asked. His voice snapped Shiro out of his thoughts.

Across the bridge, Shiro could see the five men. He could also see Ichigo just barely through a reflection on the bridge’s window.

“Don’t act innocent, you punk. We saw you toss our friends to the ground not even twenty minutes ago!”

Ichigo chuckled. “Oh, so they were  _ your _ friends, huh? Listen, they approached me. I didn’t want anything to do with-” He grunted when one of the men punched him in the stomach.

Shiro moved instinctually.

“Shut the fuck up! You’re obviously gonna pay for what you did!”

Shiro grabbed one of the men and threw him onto the ground. He knocked him out cold with a quick kick to the head.

Ichigo took the opportunity to punch another gang member in the confusion. The member dropped to the ground.

It took almost no time at all for Ichigo and Shiro to get all five men on the ground. When they were done, they were both panting, but they were in far better condition than the unconscious five men. Ichigo had a split lip and Shiro just  _ knew  _ he was going to end up with a bruise around his eye, but at least they were safe now.

Ichigo locked eyes with Shiro. Shiro felt his stomach flip again - just like before, only now he was ten times as nervous.

“Umm…” Ichigo’s voice echoed in the bridge. “Thanks?”

Shiro snorted. “Wow, that was the most ungrateful thank you I’ve ever heard.”

Ichigo laughed a little. “Yeah, well, I’m still a little in shock. If you hadn’t been here, I’d probably be the one unconscious right now. So, thank you.”

Shiro nodded. “Well, I’d better get home… and you’d better call someone to meet you. Who knows how many other people will want to beat your ass up on your way home?”

Ichigo blinked and slowly shuffled through his bag to find his phone. “That’s a good idea, actually.”

“I have those sometimes,” Shiro said, then immediately kicked himself for it. That was stupid, what the hell was wrong with him!? 

“Alright, well, seeya,” he muttered, and quickly turned on his heels and marched off before he could say anything else.

He didn’t notice if Ichigo said anything in response.


End file.
